Luton RFC back to winning ways once more

A physical, gruelling spectacle featured a series of injuries, brawls and yellow cards as Luton held on for a second away win of the season.

The home side fell victim to a resurgent Luton back line as Tesh Edwards, Johnny Wright and a double from debutant centre Tabo Maderi completed the scoring.

Rik Hobbs missed an early penalty for Luton, but in the ninth minute, Wright capitalised on a spilt pass to extend his impressive scoring form.

Luton continued inflicting their field supremacy and were successful through Maderi and Edwards.

The duo’s pace proved too much to handle for Woodford as Maderi sprinted away to record his first try on 27 minutes before setting up Edwards, who galloped home.

With Hobbs scoring two from two Luton were almost out of sight, 19-0 in front.

It was at this point Woodford began to find their feet and quickly replied with a try of their own.

After mounting pressure, a well-threaded pass exposed Luton’s right wing and Alex Pollock crossed, as they trailed 19-5 at half time.

Early in the second period, Luton came out all guns blazing and Edwards thought he had scored again.

However, referee Matthew Dunn disallowed the points as scrum half Tom Mahendran and Pollock then got into an altercation.

Just minutes later, 
Pollock was again involved in another confrontation this time with Craig South.

The referee awarded Pollock a yellow card and a period in the sin-bin.

In the 55th minute, Edwards was again darting towards the Woodford back line and teed up Wright for his second of the afternoon, with Scott Aspinall missing the extras.

As tensions and bad blood continued to boil over, South was sent to the sin bin and Woodford went over to cut the gap to 24-10.

Luton’s Sean Meddeman was the next casualty at Highams Park, leaving the field holding his right leg before a hideous collision between Tom Mahendran and Matt Barrett saw the Woodford player stretchered off.

Maderi added a late try and Aspinall followed up successfully with his conversion to secure a victory.

A euphoric Luton skills coach Chris Parr said: “We’ve had a disappointing few weeks results wise, but this is a step in the right direction.

“The first half was good, some really slick tries and good runs. In the second half, I think there was a little lack of discipline.”

Luton are without a game this weekend.